Pride/conceit

Often religions are built around the ideal of a perfected being, but such ideals mask historical reality. We will look at a hint of this in early Christianity as well as several examples from early Buddhism of the Buddha's own fallibility…

The idea of "skillful means" plays a central role in much Buddhist dharma. We'll consider one of its most famous early examples and why one scholar considered it a "paternalistic" concept. We'll also look at its role in reinterpreting the…

Bhikkhu Anālayo, a monk and major scholar of early Buddhism, has recently come out with a book on superiority conceits in several Buddhist traditions. We'll consider the four cases he discusses and then look at four further considerations…

Conceit is a central problem we face in early Buddhism. We'll look at the three kinds of conceit, how they manifest, and why they are problematic. Finally we will turn to a couple of key nuances with conceit.

It's said that all comparisons are invidious. Early Buddhism understands personal comparisons as varieties of conceit, of which there are three basic types. We'll look at those types in this video and consider why they are unskillful.